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We were the international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault (JCASA); and were dedicated to ending sexual violence in Jewish communities globally. We did our best to operate as the make a wish foundation for Jewish survivors of sex crimes. In the past we offered a clearinghouse of information, resources, support and advocacy.

Wednesday, July 18, 1979

Case of Brad Lieberman

Convicted of seven rapes and one attempted rape. This page is dedicated to the brave women who came forward and had their offender prosecuted. The Awareness Center is looking for survivors of Brad Lieberman. If you were one of them and would like to be interviewed for a story, please contact Vicki Polin.

Brad Lieberman, a suspect in six rapes and one attempted rape, was indicted Tuesday by a Cook County grand jury in five more sexual attacks on young women.

Lieberman, 19, of 9008 Lamon Av., Skokie, was charged Tuesday with four rapes and one attempted rape, bringing the total number of rape charges against him to 10, with two charges of attempted rape.

In most of the incidents, which occured on the North Side and in the northern suburbs, the rapist posed as a plumber checking for leaks.

Tuesday's indictments were brought after five women identified Lieberman last week in a lineup in the Criminal Courts Administration building at 26th Street and California Avenue.

New charges against him include rape, unlawful restrain and armed violene.

Most of the victims were in their late teens or early 20s, and the attacks dated back to July 18, 1979, with th emost recent occurring on Dec. 24.

Two of the latest list of sexual assaults took place in the Rogers Park; the other three in Niles, Northfield Township, and Maine Township. In some, the assailant carried a knife, in others a handgun. In one incident, the rapist flashed a badge and was a policeman moonlighting as a plumber.

Brad Lieberman, the accused "plumber rapist," who was arrested for raping a 19-7ear-old foreign exchange student in Highland Park Monday night, was indicted by the Lake County Grand Jury Tuesday on charges of rape, home invasion, aggravated kidnapping, and unlawful restraint.

He was ordered held without bond in the county jail in Waukegan pending a hearing at 2 p.m. Friday before Circuit Judge WilliamD. Block.

Liberman, 20, was free on $200,000 bond on charges involving sex attacks on a dozen North Sde and north suburban women at the time of his arrest.

A spokesman for State's Atty. Bernard Carey said he will move to revoke Lieberman's bond in the earlier cases in view of the latest arrest.

LIBERMAN, OF 9008 Lamon Av., Skokie, a part-time security guard, was arrested Monday night after two 14-year-old boys gave police the license number of his car.

Michael Augarola, an assistant prosecuter, said he also will seek revocation of Lieberman's bond when he appears next week before Judge Frank Barbaro in Criminal Court to face the earlier charges.

Lieberman, who was indicted in January on 10 charges of rape and two of attempted rape, was released from Cook County Jail in March after his parents put up $20,000 cash –– required 10 per cent of his bond.

He was accused of sexual assaults on 12 young women after getting into thier homes by posing as a plumber checking for leaks.

The foreign exchange student told police she admitted the suspect to the suburban home in which she was staying when he asked to use the telephone because his car broke down.

She said he threatened her with a gun, slapped her , and forced her into an upstairs bedroom, where he raped her and robbed her of $200.

Two boys returning from school jotted down the auto's model and license number when they say the man run from the house.

A description of the car was broadcast and Cook County sheriff's police spotted it at 6 p.m. in a restaurant parking lot on Golf Road in an unicorporated area near Niles.

Lieberman was arrested in the car, which reportedly belonged to his girlfriend, and turned over to Highland Park police.

Twenty-year-old Brad Lieberman, the accused "plumber rapist," was indicted by a Cook County grand jury Friday on still another rape charge bringing the total number of charges to 12 rapes and two attempted rapes.

The latest indictment charged that Leiberman, while out on $20,000 cash bond in Cook County after being indicted for 10 rapes and two attempted rapes, sexually attacked an 18-year-old Arlington Heights woman on April 21.

On Tuesday, Lieberman was indicted by a Lake County grand jury on charges of rape, home invasion, aggravated kidnapping, and unlawful restraint. Those charges stemmed from an attack on a 19-year-old foreign exhchange student in Highland Park on Monday––also while he was out on bond.

Assistant State's Atty. Michael Angarola said Lieberman is being held in Lake County. On Monday, Lieberman is scheduled to appear before Criminal Court Judge Frank Barbaro in Cook County on a motion by the state's attorney's office to have the bond revoked.

Lieberman of 9008 Lamon Av., Skokie, was dubbed the "plumber rapist' because many of his alleged victims charged that he gained entrance to their homes by claiming to be a plumber assigned to check the plumbing.

The mother of Brad Lieberman, the accused "plumber rapist," testified in her son's defense Thursday. She claimed Liberman was with her during thetime prosecutors charged he posed as a plumber and raped a 22-year-old woman who had let him into her North Side apartment to check for plumbing leadks.

However, Mrs. Harriet Lieberman, who first told jurors that her son drove a red-and-white Pontiac to her home on the morning of Dec. 17, 1979, appeared to contradict herself under cross-examination. She said she "didn't know" if her son had driven the car to her Des Plaines home that day or not.That car, with license plates 67714, led police officers to Lieberman, a 20-year-old former security guard and bar bouncer who is under indictment for 11 rapes and two attempted rapes in Cook County and one rape in Lake County.The North Side woman, a university teaching assistant, has identified Lieberman in a lineup and pointed him out in court as the man who raped her Dec. 17.Although he is accused of may rapes, Lieberman is on trial now for just one of them. But because prosecutors Michael Angarola and William Haddad are attempting to establish "striking similarity" among all the rapes of which Lieberman has been accused. Criminal Court Judge Frank W. Barbaro has allowed them to introduce the testimony of two other rape victims. Both has identified Lieberman as the man who posed as a plumber checking for leaks and who raped them once he was inside their apartments.

Brad Lieberman, the man prosecuted charge hasraped at least 11 women by posing as a plumber, was found guilty Monday of raping a 22-year-old North Side woman who said she let him into her apartment to check for plumbing leaks.

A criminal court jury of four women and eight men deliberated an hour and 40 mintues before returning a guilty verdict against Lieberman, a former security guard who took courses in criminal law.

Tears streamed down the 20-year-old Lieberman's cheeks as the verdict was announced. The tall, muscular Lieberman, who contended he was "the wrong man" glanced at the celling in shook his head in apparent amazement as one of his alleged victims broke out in a short burst of applause.

Lieberman, who was described by prosecutors Michael Angarola and William Haddas as a "cunning and deceitful man' who "lulled (his victims) into trusting him" is under indictment for 10 rapes and two attempted rapes in Cook County and one in Lake County.

State's Atty. Bernard Carey, who came to Judge Frank W. Barbaro's courtroom for the verdict, said the maximum penalty for rape plus an extended term will be sought on this conviction, which means Lieberman could be sentenced to prison for 60 years.

Carey also said Lieberman would be tried separetely on every other rape charge against him.

"He is one of the moste dangerous rapists we have had in Cook County in recent years because of this ability to gain the confidence of his victims." Carey said. "We want him locked up for as long as possible."

Because prosecutors were attempting to establish a "striking similarity" in al the rapes of which Lieberman has been accused, Judge Barbara allowed them to introduce testimony of two other rape victims who identified Lieberman in police lineupsand in court as the man who posed as a plumber and raped them.

Brad Lieberman, the so-called "plumber rapist" convicted last month of raping a North Side woman, has been convicted for the rape of a visiting foreign student in Highland Park.

A Lake County jury deliberated for about five hours Friday before convicting Lieberman, 20, on charges of rape, robbery, and intimidation stemming from the May 5, assault.

Lieberman was found guilty Sept. 22 of raping a 22-year-old North Side woman who said she let him into her apartment to check for plumbing leaks.

Lieberman, of Skokie, is also underindictment for nine additional rapes and two attempted rapes in Cook Couty.

Authorities gave Lieberman his nickname because of the method used in most of the rapes with which he is charged. In most cases, the rapist gained entrance to the women's apartments by posing as a plumber checking for leaks.

Lieberman faces sentencing Nov. 14 before Lake County Circuit Judge William Block in the Highland Park rape, according to Lake County assistant State's Atty. Lawrence Helms.

Mrs. Harriet Lieberman, who tetified as an alibi witness for her son in his Cook Couty rape trial, wrote in a small notebook as each of the women recounted details of her rape, identified Lieberman as the assailant, and told of nightmares and other emotional problems suffered since the rape.

There was loud applause from the women and their friends, who filled two rows in the courtroom, as Barbaro, noting Lieberman's Lake County conviction and the "great emotional trauma' the women had suffered, sentenced Liberman to prison.

Barbbaro said that while there was o reat physical trauma infliected upon Lieberma's vitims, "There was and remains a great emotional trauma" suffered by the women, whih might take yars to heal.

Throughout his trial, Lieberman contended that the court had "the wrong man" an that he was innocent.

"I feel very sorry for these women, because I know they have been terrorized," Lieberman tearfully told Barbaro, "but I cant' just picture some guy laughing because I am going to prison for what he did."

Lieberman's attorney, William Winn, filed notice to appeal the sentence but withdrew as his counsel. Barbaro then instructed Lieberman to file an affidavit about his financial status so he could be considered for reprentation by a public defender.

A missing word in a new state law should allow Brad Lieberman, the notorious "plumber rapist," to go free now that the Skokie native has completed his 20-year sentence, his attorney argued Friday in Cook County Criminal Court.

Judge William Wood isn't buying that argument, but the attorney
promises it will re-emerge on appeal if Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan wins
indefinite commitment of Lieberman under the 1998 Sexually Violent
Persons Act.

The technicality is that the new law
does not specify "rape" as an offense. In 1984, officials abolished
that term and started substituting the broader "criminal sexual
assault," partly in order to include incest and other sex crimes in the
charge.

"He is not subject to this act," said
Lieberman's attorney, Christopher Canning. "The attorney general is
saying it's merely a legislative oversight. That's their argument, and I
think it's incorrect."

Lieberman was convicted
of seven rapes in Cook and Lake Counties and was a suspect in at least
five more, according to Assistant Atty. Gen. Clyde Lemons. To gain entry
into the women's homes, Lieberman posed as a plumber checking for
leaks.

Under the law, a former inmate can be
confined in a mental health facility until psychologists believe he is
not a risk or until he dies.

Lieberman was
supposed to be freed Jan. 9, but he remains at Sheridan Correctional
Center until a jury determines whether he still poses a danger to
society.

"With somebody who committed that many
rapes, you can't tell me the legislature didn't have that in mind when
they said somebody was sexually violent," Lemons said.

Lieberman, 40, has long maintained his innocence. His attorney argues
that he has served his sentence and should be allowed to live
independently.

"Plumber Rapist" Brad Lieberman
likely will remain behind bars for at least another year or two because
the Illinois Appellate Court indicated this week that it would consider
his case.

The Skokie
native, convicted two decades ago of a series of rapes, recently
completed his sentence. But Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan is trying to keep him
behind bars indefinitely under a new law for sexually violent offenders,
even though the law doesn't specifically state the charge under which
Lieberman was convicted.

In an oversight among
authors of the Sexually Violent Persons Act of 1998, the law states it
applies to felons who have been convicted of various forms of "criminal
sexual assault," but omits the now- obsolete charge of "rape."

Attorneys for Lieberman appealed a recent ruling of Cook County Circuit
Judge Thomas R. Fitzgerald that the rapist should be subject to the
1998 law.

Twenty-year-old Brad Lieberman, the accused "plumber rapist," was indicted by a Cook County grad jury Friday on till another rape charge, bringing the total number of charges to 12 rapes and two attempted rapes.

The last indictment charged taht Lieberman, while out on$20,000 cash bond in Cook County after being indicted for 10 rapes and two attempted rapes, sexually attacked an 18-year-old Arlington Heights woman on April 21.

On Tuesday, Lieberman was indicted by a Lake County grand jury on charges of rape, home invasion, aggravated kidnapping, ad unlawful restraint. Those charges stemmed from an attack on a 19-year-old foreign exchange student from Highland Park on Monday –– also while he was out on bond.

Assistant States's Atty. Michael Angarola said Lieberman is being held in Lake County. On Monday, LIeberman is scheduled to appear before Criminal Court Judge Frank Barbaro in Cook County on the motion by the state's attorney's office to have his bond revoked.

Lieberman of 9008 Lamon Av., Skokie, was dubbed the "Plumber rapist" because many of his alleged victims charged that he gaine entrance to their homes by claiming to be a plumber assigned to check the plumbing.

The Illinois Appellate Court on Tuesday cleared the way for a man
convicted of seven sexual assaults to go free, declaring that he is not
subject to an Illinois law that keeps sexual predators off the streets
even after their prison sentences have expired.

Brad Lieberman, 41, of Skokie,
was convicted of rape in connection with attacks in Cook and Lake
Counties. He is not subject to the state's Sexually Violent Persons Act
because of what amounts to a loophole in the law, the court ruled.

The law did not originally specify rape as one of the offenses
subject to its provisions. The loophole has since been closed by the
legislature.

In 1984, the charge of rape was
eliminated and the broader "criminal sexual assault" was used instead
partly to include incest and other sex crimes in the charge.

Appellate Court Judge Margaret Stanton McBride noted that while the
state's arguments are "compelling" that the failure of the law to
include rape was a legislative "oversight," the justices were bound by
"the plain language of the statute."

Kimball
Anderson, Lieberman's attorney, praised the court's decision, saying his
client has served his time and should be released immediately.

"He's served his full sentence; he's paid whatever dues he owes to
society," Anderson said, adding that he planned to initiate proceedings
to have his client freed.

But Dan Curry, a
spokesman for Illinois Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan, whose office filed the
motion for a civil commitment of Lieberman once his prison sentence
ended, said steps would be taken to keep the man locked up.

"We are reviewing all our legal options to attempt to prevent his
release," said Curry. "We believe that there is substantial probability
that Mr. Lieberman will re-offend."

Curry said his office was unaware of any other individuals affected by the Appellate Court ruling.

Lieberman, who served 20 years in prison, was convicted of seven
rapes and was a suspect in at least five more, according to state
officials. To gain entry into the women's homes, Lieberman posed as a
plumber checking for leaks.

Under the law, an
offender who has served his sentence can be confined in a mental health
facility until psychologists believe he is not a risk or until he dies.

According to Ryan's office, since the law was passed in 1998, about
170 individuals convicted of sexually violent crimes have been kept off
the street after their prison sentences have ended.

Lieberman was to be freed Jan. 9, 2000, but the Illinois attorney
general's office filed a motion to have him kept in state custody.

Prosecutors said a psychological evaluation of Lieberman, conducted
shortly before his prison sentence was about to end, concluded there was
a substantial probability that he would attack other victims.

Lieberman has long maintained his innocence. His attorneys have
argued that having served his sentence, he should now be freed.

A jury at the Criminal Courts Building began hearing evidence Tuesday on whether a 46-year-old Skokie man should be kept off the streets despite serving a prison sentence for a series of sexual attacks in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Illinois attorney general's office is arguing for a civil commitment of Brad Lieberman under the Sexually Violent Persons Act. He was convicted of seven rapes and was charged in several others.

Lieberman's attorneys argue their client successfully completed a
20-year prison sentence in 1999. He has maintained his innocence and
currently is detained at an Illinois Department of Human Services
facility.

Reviews of Lieberman's case show he
is at high risk to offend again if allowed back into public life,
Jacqueline Buck, a clinical psychologist and evaluator for the Illinois
Department of Corrections, testified Tuesday.

A serial rapist's sexual harassment lawsuit against a female prison worker can go to trial, a federal judge has ruled.

Brad Lieberman, dubbed the "Plumber Rapist" for a string of attacks he
made on women on Chicago's North Side and four suburbs in 1979 while
posing as a plumber, claims prison worker Victoria Doll groped him,
solicited sex from him and then had him investigated when he refused to
sleep with her.

She does not dispute the
conduct but says in court papers it did not qualify as sexual
harassment, an argument the judge didn't buy.

A Skokie
native, Lieberman over about six months attacked at least eight women
after gaining their trust by flashing a badge and claiming to be a
plumber checking for leaks. Sixteen women identified him as their
attacker. He was convicted of seven rapes and one attempted rape.

The part-time security guard was arrested after a police officer from
the Rogers Park district went under hypnosis so he could remember the
first three digits on the license plates on a car he had stopped. Those
numbers matched those reported by a woman's boyfriend who prevented an
attempted rape.

Lieberman spent 20 years in
prison after being convicted of rape charges in Lake and Cook counties.
The state then successfully petitioned in 2000 to have him designated a
sexually violent person, meaning he can be civilly detained in a
treatment program, possibly for the rest of his life.

That same year, Lieberman sued Doll and prison officials on various
grounds. Last week, a federal judge dismissed all the claims except the
sexual harassment counts against Doll and one against the estate of a
prison doctor, now deceased, who allegedly stopped prescribing
medication for Lieberman's thyroid disease.

Lieberman said Doll, who worked at the Sheridan prison as a security
therapy aide, groped him, danced in front of him suggestively, told him
he "turned her on," wrote him letters and left him a cassette tape
with a recording of her singing and moaning Lieberman's name. She also
said, "Tell me you're my boyfriend ... and everything will be fine."

When he wouldn't sleep with her, Doll told him she would "bring (him)
down" and then reported him for "inappropriate behavior." Lieberman was
confined to his room for a week while authorities investigated the
report.

Lieberman then gave prison officials a
letter describing her behavior; when confronted, Doll resigned. He also
filed a lawsuit, claiming her actions left him embarrassed and
humiliated.

"Doll's statements, notes and gifts
to Lieberman made it clear she was actively pursuing a romantic or
sexual relationship with him," Judge John J. Tharp Jr. wrote in his
ruling. "Such conduct by a person in a position of power or control --
be it a guard, a boss, a teacher -- over the target of the advances is a
hallmark of harassing behavior."

Lieberman,
who a state expert previously testified is a psychopath, is currently
housed at the Rushville Treatment and Detention Facility.

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4 comments:

No one ever mentions that Brad Lieberman grew up in Evanston. He was physically big even as an 8th grader and bullied many youths at Haven Jr. High and Evanston Township High School. Some class mates of his remember him standing by the classroom door giving out free punches or kicks before they entered the class room. Anyone who stood up to him often made him back off. He only picked on people that he could intimidate like a true coward. He also had an entourage of "superheroes" that looked up to him. When he was finally arrested for his horrific crimes of rape. His friends disappeared from Evanston embarrassed they were friends with this monster. Many Evanston teenagers who had to live day to day at school or at our parks in beaches with Brad in the 1970's are pleased that he is incarcerated.

I have been following this case for a very long time. I am sure that you do not know some of the details about the case such as when the victums went in to identify Brad that there was a (R) placed under his name as the rapist, or that there were 17 sets of fingerprints withheld from the trial from Mr Angarola (deceased), or that the rape kits that were taken did not match Brad, or that Richard Barham confessed to the crimes, and was told to shut up that they had who they wanted for the crimes Richard Barham even gave details down to the underpants that the victums were wearing he is now sitting in a mental ward unable to be spoken to. I for one was taunted, teased, and bullied in school, but I NEVER accused someone of something that they had not done, and my opinion is that the victums that accused this man back in 1979-80 need to recant thier stories, and tell the truth this in my opinion has gone on for way to long to a man that is innocent. He lost out on watching his daughter grow up get married, his father passing away, and his mother passing away, and now his wife is very ill. I say enough. Anonymous

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Survivors ARE Heroes!

The Awareness Center believes ALL survivors of sex crimes should be given yellow ribbons to wear proudly.

Survivors of sexual violence (as adults and/or as a child) are just as deserving of a yellow ribbon as the men and women of our armed forces, who have been held captive as hostages or prisoners of war.

Survivors of sexual violence have been forced to learn how to survive, being held captive not by foreigners, but mostly by their own family members, teachers, camp counselors, coaches babysitters, rabbis, cantors or other trusted authority figures.

For these reasons ALL survivors of sexual violence should be seen as heroes!